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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26467744">Wake-up Call</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/alivingsaint/pseuds/alivingsaint'>alivingsaint</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>24 (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Action, Gen, POV Second Person, Suspense</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:41:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>465</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26467744</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/alivingsaint/pseuds/alivingsaint</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The following takes place because a voice on the other end of the line says you're going to die if you don't do exactly as he tells you.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Wake-up Call</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Canon divergent post-S6 ficlet. I wrote this way back during the long break between S6 and S7. Originally I was going to turn this into a longer story, but the inspiration never fully manifested. I think it reads alright as a standalone piece, one that can hint towards the setup of S7, so I'm posting it here to the archives. Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The following takes place because a voice on the other end of the line says you're going to die if you don't do exactly as he tells you. </p>
<p>“This isn't a threat,” he says. “This is the reality of your situation.”</p>
<p>Ever since Wayne Palmer's cranial bleed-out, the country has frazzled at the seams.  It's tearing in half, ripping from the cabinet on down, so he has reason to believe certain groups within the government are out to get you now, that your deliberate civil disobedience set into motion an elaborate chain-effect of a suicide. </p>
<p>It's 4:57 AM, and you say, “Hold on, damnit.”</p>
<p>You say, “Who the hell is this?”</p>
<p>The voice on the other end of the phone, he just tells you to shut up and listen. Who he is and who he's working for, he says he'll explain everything along the way, but you'd better get up. You have to get moving.</p>
<p>Between beats he adds he's trying to save your life here, but you're running out of time.</p>
<p>What you have to understand is you've been marked as a liability. Right here on your personal records, you've been flagged as a dangerous, treasonous, loose cannon security threat to the nation. </p>
<p>The voice through the wires says you have two minutes before the lock on your back door shatters into a hundred Freon coated pieces. After that, someone is going to be twenty thousand dollars richer for putting a bullet through your head.</p>
<p>The voice says, “This wake-up call, consider it advanced warning for your 0500-hour assassination.”</p>
<p>The voice says, “Former CTU Agent Jack Bauer, are you up yet?”</p>
<p>It's 4:58 AM.</p>
<p>With your gun in hand, you're already down the stairs. You're edging around corners, back pressed against the wall. The way your shoulder's crushing the phone to your face makes the crook of your neck feel like your past coming back to bite you. A steady ache. The sickening twinge of cutting off your own circulation.</p>
<p>You grit your teeth. "Tell me one good reason you're giving me this information.”</p>
<p>The phone digs into your skin, and you hiss, “Give me one good reason that I can trust you.”</p>
<p>The words 'marching to your own funeral' come to mind.</p>
<p>The words: setup, deathtrap, shoveling dirt for your own grave.</p>
<p>Through the tinny distortion of wires the voice tells you that you're still alive, so just be patient and stay sharp. </p>
<p>He’s counting on you, he says, but after a loud burst of static, that’s it. The guy’s gone.</p>
<p>Your back door's lock mechanism fractures with a brittle sound like pieces of breaking glass. The handle turns, and you think, "God fucking damnit."</p>
<p>It's 5:00 AM, and your shoulder has lost all neural sensitivity. </p>
<p>You pull the trigger.</p>
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